MANCHESTER GOODS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 April 1940, Page 5

MANCHESTER GOODS

PRODUCTION UNDER WAR DIFFICULTIES MILLS AT LOW WORKING CAPACITY. EXTRACTS FROM MANUFACTURER’S LETTER. A prominent Masterton draper, who has been experiencing considerable difficulty in obtaining stocks of Manchester piece goods, has received from a well-known Wellington wholesale firm an extract from a letter, received by the wholesaler from a. Manchester firm, which gives an indication of the disruption in normal industry caused by the war. The letter states in part: “Since we wrote to you the difficulties have increased rather than diminished. Ever since the war broke out the public have been buying heavily in the expectation that cotton cloths will continue to rise in value as long as the war lasts. Most mills have enough work ~to keep them going at full capacity from four to eight months according to the type of goods that they are making. Those on Government orders probably have sufficient work for 12 months. It is, of course, the huge Government requirements which, to a large, extent, have caused a shortage for ordinary commercial purposes. In the counts of yarn which are used largely for Government orders spinners are waiting 6 to 8 months for delivery of beams. There is a scarcity of workpeople and the average running of mills at the present time is only 75 per cent of capacity . . . “We have also had one of the severest winters on record which has created much illness amongst the workers. The black-out is also a contributory factor to the loss of production, as many of the older weavers who often live a considerable distance from their work are finding the strain hard to bear. Last week the roads and railways of Britain were made impassable through heavy snowstorms, the drifts in places being 14 to 20 feet deep. There was a shortage of coal at the mills and a large number of them closed down. We could get no supplies of cloth through, and trade in the country as far as the movement of goods was concerned was brought to a standstill. The thaw has now set in . . The letter continues: “The British Government views with concern the large amount of home trade which is at present going on. It is urging the people to buy only where strictly necessary and to save as much of their incomes as possible and invest in Government securities, etc. Whether this campaign will have the desired effect or otherwise, it is difficult to say, but it should be born in mind that many of the lower paid workers, such as labourers, dockers, engineers, etc., are receiving such greatly increased earnings that probably for the first time in a generation they have a certain amount of money to spend on what, to them, will be luxuries, and one can only sympathise with their desire to take advantage of the opportunity. In a police court case recently a dock labourer stated in evidence that he could now earn £lO to £l2 a week (including overtime. Saturday and Sunday work making 80 to 90 hours, per week). We mention these small points as a guide to conditions in branches of the industry. The writer adds that “it is to be hoped that the Government campaign will in the long run be successful, as we cannot finance such a costly war as this and at the same time spend money lavishly on things that are nonessential in war time. The Government have it in their power, by restricting the supplies of raw materials to control production to some extent . . . and they will also have to do something quickly to encourage the export trade. We could sell quite a lot of goods for the Dominions and colonies if we could only get the mills to quote reasonable delivery and competitive prices, but a large amount of export business is being lost as a result of the excessive home trade demand.”